x~x~x

Chapter XXI

x~x~x

Castiel entered the building and rushed to Andy's desk right away. The young man was going through some comic book lazily, not looking sleepy despite the late hour.

'Andy.'

'Yeah?'

'Did anyone go up to our level, anyone you don't know?' Castiel asked.

'Not since I got here,' Andy said, finally looking up from the comic book. 'Why?'

'And Gabriel?' Cas asked instead of answering.

'Yeah, he got home just after I got here, why? Castiel?' but Cas was paying no attention to him anymore. He went to the elevator to get up to their floor. He was immensely relieved that Gabriel was indeed home. Hundreds of worst possible scenarios rushed through his mind in the past minutes, him being home erased some of those. He was not relaxed yet though, not until he could see him with his own eyes. More than anything he wished to find him sleeping in their bed and then he could Kali and tell her everything was fine.

The elevator ride never seemed this long in the two years since they lived here. Castiel just hoped, literally prayed that nothing was wrong, because not Michael, not now when Gabriel was finally fine again, now when they were all fine again. The door opened at the 7th floor and Castiel walked towards their apartment with certain steps. When he noticed the first white envelope on the floor he stopped abruptly, but then he took another few steps closer, regaining his composure, and sure enough, there were several letters scattered in front of their door.

His mind was rushing with his possibilities. He could call the police right away and wait for them to get here, it would be the smartest thing to do, but... Gabriel. The thought of Gabriel being alone with his brother... just no. No, he couldn't allow that. He silently stepped closer to the door and got his keys out to open the door as quietly as possible.

x~x~x

'So are you just gonna stare at me for the rest of eternity?' Gabriel asked. They've been here, for hours. Nick raided their fridge and drank a beer in all peace, while Michael continued to pretend to be invisible or something standing by the wall. Gabriel still couldn't think of any escape options, unless he actually tried to get the gun away from the fucker, which was... yeah, him going face-to-face with an over 6 feet tall armed ex-con, that would surely end well. He still had no idea what they wanted from him, which was more than a little disturbing.

'Oh, I'm just waiting for Mikey to grow some balls and speak his mind already.'

Gabriel turned to look at his brother with a questioning look when he heard it, that small quiet click of the front door lock. Nick's head whipped up at the sound, he stood up and leveled Michael with a look.

'Keep him quiet... or I will,' he said, pointing at Gabriel with his gun again. He started walking out of the living room. Before Gabriel could yell at whoever was coming home, Michael was already on him, a hand clamped down on his mouth as he was kept in place. Despite being skinnier than before, Michael was still strong, and then some. Gabriel started to struggle immediately, trying to get out of his grip. This started to feel terrifyingly familiar, but before real panic could've settled in his gut Michael pressed his forehead to his and started talking in a hurried whispering tone.

'Please, Gabriel. Stay quiet, please. He's gonna hurt you if you don't, believe me, he will and I can't let that... just, please... be quiet, please.'

Gabriel froze at the words, it was so achingly familiar, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

"Shh, it's okay, it's gonna be okay, just be quiet. Please be quiet, little brother."

Something... a memory? He didn't know, it was all too vague for him to grab a hold of, but he remembered something. It was tugging at the back of his mind, Michael's voice in his head sounded too high, too young. What was this memory?

A loud thud coming from the entry hall tore him away from the traces of something forgotten and his eyes widened in alarm. Next he heard Nick letting out a pained sound and then he groaned angrily, there were a few heavy steps and then Castiel and Nick fell into the living room and entered his line of vision. Nick still had the gun, but Castiel managed to knee him in the stomach before he could raise it. The blond-haired man doubled a little over with a pained grunt, but still evaded when Cas wanted to punch him in the face and charged at him, getting both off them off their feet as they landed hard at the wooden floor right in front of the TV. There was a short struggle between them, that ended when Cas managed to get on top. Castiel was holding the wrist that held the gun, his grip strong, but Nick held onto his weapon. Castiel's other hand was around Nick's throat while the other tried to pry it off. Then Nick glanced to the side and let go of Castiel's hand quickly. He tore the DVD player out from its place and smashed it to Cas' head who went limp above him right away and Nick could toss him off of him.

Gabriel started to struggle against Michael and he managed to get out of his grip when he dug his nails into his arm as hard as he could and the older man's hold loosened. Nick got onto his feet, his nose bloody and now he looked furious, beyond furious and he raised his gun right away. Gabriel was up from the couch and at the TV in a second and got in-between them without even thinking about what he was doing. He threw himself down onto the ground to reach Castiel.

He had his eyes squeezed shut as he covered the younger man, but the gunshot never came.

He blinked open his eyes, his breathing heavy, his blood pounding in his ears. He raised his upper-body and glanced back over his shoulder. Michael was standing between them and Nick, his hand on the other man's gun-holding hand. He stood close to the other to speak in a quiet tone, but Gabriel could hear him clearly.

'Calm down, he's down... okay? Just calm down,' he was saying to him. Nick kept staring down at Gabriel and Cas on the floor with a dark look on his face before he looked at Michael and finally lowered the gun. He reached to his bloody nose to wipe it and cursed immediately in pain.

'Fuck! The fuck is this little prick? God-fucking-dammit!' He was not paying attention to them anymore. Michael looked back at him, but Gabriel turned away to check on Castiel. His head was bleeding. Dammit.

'Can I get some bandages?' he asked and looked back at Nick. Soon the blue gaze landed on him again, Nick's face was still bloody and he was going to have a nasty bruise, since Cas broke his nose very neatly.

'You know what, doc? Fine. You're fixing my nose first, and then maybe I let you patch up that little piece of shit.'

'Deal,' Gabriel said right away. He can set his nose back if he was allowed to bandage up Cas' wound in return, it was a good trade.

'Tell Mikey where you keep the stuff. I don't want you out of my sight for a second,' Nick said as he sat down to the couch and groaned in discomfort again as he put a hand on his stomach.

x~x~x

Castiel woke up slowly, but when a sharp pain shot into his head he blinked open his eyes with a groan. And wanted to jolt up as he felt that his hands were tied.

'Shh, Cas, stay still,'he heard from above him and he managed to focus on Gabriel a second later.

'Gabriel... wha-'

'Finally done with the beauty sleep? I'm not gonna lie to you, it would've been much better if you wouldn't have woken up.'

Cas wanted to sit up to look at the strange voice as suddenly everything came back to him, but Gabriel kept a hand on his chest and didn't let him move.

'Who the hell are you?' he still asked.

'Now, at least I have the advantage here, because I know everything about you... Second Lieutenant... this is a very bad picture of you by the way.'

'Let me up, Gabriel,' he said and Gabriel seemed like he wanted to argue, but then he pulled him up and propped his back to the side of the armchair. His hands were not tied up like Castiel's.

His head went dizzy from the position change, but it cleared out soon enough. He saw the man he was fighting, now with a bandage across the bridge of his nose, but his face turned into a dark purple shade – almost black – all around the gauze. Castiel felt very satisfied about that as the man was looking down at his wallet and his ID cards, he must've searched him. He still had his gun in his hand. Cas quickly looked around and noticed the black-haired man standing somewhere between the man and him and Gabriel, but out of the way. It took Castiel a lot of time to recognize Michael Morgenstern in him.

'So, what's it gonna be, Nick?' Gabriel asked as he turned to look at the blond man. He was sitting next to Castiel on the carpet.

'That's up to Mikey,' the man answered.

'Really? We're going to wait around for Michael to hold a grand speech or confess his sins, or whatever the hell you want him to do?'

'I could simply shoot you, if that would be more to your liking,' Nick told him in answer. Gabriel kept his eyes on the man for a few silent moments. Castiel could only see half of his face, but it seemed relaxed and intent to him.

'You do realize that there's nowhere for you to go from here just back to jail, right?' Gabriel asked then.

'You sure you chose the right strategy there, Gabriel? That's something that makes me wanna shoot you more.'

'No, you see... there are some things you may wanna consider,' Gabriel said as he stood up from the floor and started walking a bit closer to the other man with lazy leisure steps. Castiel immediately felt his heart in his throat and he wanted to shout at Gabriel, because what on Earth was he doing?

'Right now, this,' he spread his arms a little showing around the room, referring to their situation. 'Is, lets say, forced entry, assault, threatening with a deadly weapon... maybe a few other moderate charges, not sure, I'm not a lawyer, nor a cop... but... yeah, it would give you a handful of years back in that... luxury hotel you mentioned earlier.'

Nick's sharp gaze was locked on Gabriel the entire time, well, not like Castiel and Michael were not staring at him too.

'But if there's a body,' Gabriel continued as he finally stood still, looking up at Nick who was looking back at him from his place at the wall. 'With you being a return customer... you'd go straight to the death row.'

He fell silent, or just leaving a pause for his words to sink in. Nick's face darkened further.

'C'mon, you're not stupid... you should've realized that on your own by now.'

'If I'm caught,' Nick said.

'Yeah right, because the police would look over the death of a moderately well-known doctor or that of an Air Force officer's... think a little. We're not some hobo's in a dark alley you can take out your anger on to feel big and strong.'

Nick pushed himself off the wall and was walking closer. Castiel again just wanted to yell at Gabriel to back the hell off and shut up, but he didn't really dare to interrupt. It looked like Gabriel had a plan with this, despite it looking suicidal in Cas' eyes. Michael was not leaning against the wall either now, he looked like he wanted to move closer, but he hesitated, his eyes were constantly locked on Nick or Gabriel though.

'I would watch my tone, if I were you,' Nick warned and he stopped one step away from Gabriel. To Castiel's surprise Gabe was staring down the taller man almost without blinking. His posture sure and still looking utterly calm and almost nonchalant.

'I'm right and you know it. If anyone dies here, you're dead,' Gabriel kept going ignoring the warning completely. 'You would have that needle up in your arm so fucking fast, that you wouldn't even have time to beg some senator for mercy.'

Nick kept staring at him for another moment, but Gabriel stood his ground, just looking back at him. There was a hint of a smile on Nick's face before he raised his hand and struck Gabriel across the chin with the back of his gun.

'Nick!' Michael yelled and he was across the room and right in the other's personal space even before Gabriel hit the floor. Castiel wanted to rush to him, but the first movement made him dizzy in the head again.

'Gabriel!' he called.

'I'm fine,' Gabriel said. His tone exactly the same as before. He turned and sat up, wiping away the blood from his face with his sleeve.

'I told you to watch your tone,' Nick said.

'Stop it, Nick!' Michael argued.

'You're gonna tell me not to teach a smartass a lesson? Huh? Stop arguing with me, Mikey.'

'Leave him alone,' Michael said.

'Oh yeah, why?'

'He's my brother,' the dark-haired man answered. Such anger darkened Nick's face in a second that Castiel actually felt fear curl up in his stomach.

Nick struck Michael a lot harder than he did Gabriel. He hit him right in the face and with such power that the other stumbled and almost hit the coffee table.

'I'm your brother!' Nick yelled down at him. 'I've been taking care of you! I've been watching out for you, protecting your ungrateful ass for years! You would've been dead within a month without me!' he crouched down to Michael and grabbed his t-shirt, pulling him in a sitting position and he kept yelling, but now right in his face.

'You spent the last ten years trying to figure out how to beg yourself back into little brother's life. Don't you get it? It won't happen. But you're just too stupid to get that! I just can't. Get it. In Your. Head!' he told him and jabbed at his forehead with his hand repeatedly to punctuate his words. 'You still don't understand, you stupid little shit? You think your big-shot doctor brother would ever again give a crap about you? You can't still possibly be that much of an idiot. I could shoot you right here in front of him and he would be more pissed about me ruining his carpet than your brain splattered on the floor. You're just an ex-con, just white trash and I'm the only one who's willing to lift a finger for you! I took you in, I helped you! And this? This is how you repay me? Siding with him?'

Michael kept his eyes averted and stayed down as the angry words were hissed at him. Nick maybe would've continued, but a quiet chuckle interrupted him and he looked beyond murderous when his eyes locked on Gabriel again. Castiel stared at him with wide eyes, because what the hell was he doing?

'Something funny, Gabriel?' Nick asked in a low tone.

'Yeah,' Gabriel nodded, his chuckles almost growing into a laugh. 'You. Is this what this is about? Really? You're jealous?' he laughed a little as he shook his head, there was still blood on his face, but he acted like it wasn't even there. Nick stood up, dropping Michael and he advanced at Gabriel again. Gabriel smiled, almost grinned up at him. 'You are one pathetic son of a bitch.'

Nick looked down at him while Castiel stared in horror. For a moment he was sure that it was his head injury acting up, because no way Gabriel was taunting him. No way he just laughed in the face of the madman with the gun.

'If you're dead, I'm dead... that's what you said,' Nick spoke finally. Gabriel hummed in agreement and nodded once. 'Well, I will greet death as an old friend. How are you going to face it?'

'I'll cross that bridge when I get to it,' Gabriel answered simply.

'You know what I think, you little bastard? I think, simply just shooting you, would be way too kind of me,' Nick said. Gabriel just kept staring up at him, his head comfortably resting at the edge of the couch. His body language, his face, still all relaxed, the laughter left his face now, but he didn't look afraid or tense, he didn't look like anything really. His face was a calm mask and Castiel absolutely had no idea what may have been going through his head. The way he was acting though? Castiel would've said, that it scared him a little. If he would've allowed himself to be honest at this moment, and he really didn't want to be honest about this.

x~x~x

To be continued...